5 comments about Chrismukkah: Everything You Need to Know to Celebrate the Hybrid Holiday.

1. THE BEST, MOST HILARIOUS--AND USEFUL--BOOK EVER FOR MIXED FAITH FOLKS WHO CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS AND HANNUKAH WITH DOUBLE-THE-FUN FANFARE! FOR EVERYONE WHO KNOWS THE JOYS AND OYS OF THE HOLIDAY SEASON, THIS BOOK VALIDATES, ENRICHES, ENTERTAINS, AND IS SO FUNNY EVERY STEP OF THE WAY, "YULE PLOTZ!"



2. I've only said that a couple times in my life. Gompertz treats the subject with insanely clever humor and heart and is a top-notch writer. This isn't just a gimmick; it's clear this guy really cares about Jews and Gentiles embracing and carrying on their own traditions...together.
   
   I'm getting this book for all my interfaith couple friends (and the list is growing). What a terrific gift for the holiday season!



3. This book fits my life...I decorate our Chrismukkah tree with menorahs as well as colorful glass balls. The wreath on our door has dreidels on it instead of pine cones and holly. Our daughter looks forward to both lighting the tree AND the Hanukkah candles. There are lots of funny tips and trivia about those who also celebrate both holidays in December. The author also has a self-published cookbook with lots of hilarious and yummy recipes - [...]



4. This book is great for ways to help "blended" families celebrate both Chanukah and Christmas in a way that does not short change either celebration. Lots of crafts and recipes that the children can use to help them understand that it is possible to respect and enjoy both of their parents religion. I am glad I bought it. They will be glad to receive it.



5. I love this book! At first I thought it was just a humor book, but although it is quite funny, it also has a serious purpose. It really has a lot of information about how to create a holiday to celebrate during December that both members of a Jewish-Christian interfaith couple can be happy with. It has recipes and lot of other ideas and information. It actually has instructions for making a dreidel out of clay and playing dreidel, as well as recipes for Shirley Temple Emanuel and Meshuggeh Nog Latte, as well as a good list of famous half-Jews. It also has a great glossary with definitions like "Kibbitz: To chat, gab, engage in frivolous conversation. What WASPs like to do during cocktail hours before the holiday dinner. Not to be confused with kibbutz, a farm in Israel." A great gift for interfaith couples or people with interfaith couples in their family who have an interest in and sense of humor about religion.

5 comments about Hadassah Jewish Holiday Cookbook.

1. I am not a cook. I am a rabbi who cannot cook. In fact, it is dangerous to put me in the kitchen. This book though is not just a great cookbook. It is an incredible historical read. If I could cook I probably would give it ten stars. Remarkable, unique, different, poignant, profound are just some of the words that describe this cookbook. Joan Michel came up with a briliant idea. The contributors from Hadassah Magazine's readership tapped into some resovoir of knowledge and history and produced a profound souffle of goodness, down- home historical family recipes filled with the holiness and history of the ages. This one is more than a keeper, it is a gift giver to all your friends.

   Rabbi Yehudah Fine
   Times Square Rabbi-Finding the Hope in Lost Kids' Lives
   Yehudahfine.com




2. This is an excellent book for the preparation of fine
   Kosher dishes. For instance, the authors explain how to prepare
   Yosi's Israeli Salad, Esroq cookies and Biblical Kugel- to mention just a few of the fine preparations. Biblical Kugel is prepared with sugar cinnamon, cloves, oil, ginger, raisins, figs, almonds and brandy (optional). The book depicts the
   layout of the dish so that readers have a visual model in order
   to prepare the food for family and guests. Lastly, there is
   an extensive presentation of Kosher offerings appropriate for
   almost every dining experience imaginable.



3. I am a cookbook collector, and I specialize in Jewish/Kosher cookbooks (I have over 60 in that category alone) and I must admit this is a beautiful cookbook, really more a coffee table book than anything else. There are gorgeous photos of ancient Judaica and interesting bits of history on almost every page and many of the recipes are tempting. BUT... although the book is organized by season, beginning with Autumn and the Jewish New Year, the holidays are listed in the wrong order! Chanuka is listed as the Winter holiday and then we immediately jump to Spring and Passover, followed by Purim which is also included in the spring section. Hello?! How hard is it to go to your local Kosher butcher and get a Jewish calendar? Or look on the internet? Presumably there was at least one Jewish person on the editorial staff who would have known whom to ask. Purim falls in Adar which coincides with February and/or March - clearly still winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Purim is followed by Passover which is THE spring holiday followed seven weeks later by Shavuout (which translates as Weeks in Hebrew, because of those sevens weeks).
   Hadassah places Purim between Passover and Shavuout! This major error continues to be so much of a turn off to me that the book sits on my shelf gathering dust and causing aggrevation whenever I think of it.



4. I notice that none of the reviews actually mentions having cooked any of the dishes. I agree - the book is gorgeous - but the recipes are not. I tried three of them - all failed - and I am a good amateur cook. I donated the book to the thrift shop.



5. I ordered this book with a few other kosher cookbooks and found that this book was the best out of all of them. The recipies are delicious at very straight forward. I found them more stimulating to actually make, as I enjoy complex recipies. Not all the recipies are complex. In fact, most of them are simple. This was definately a good buy!

5 comments about A Taste of Challah.

1. While this book might be less intimidating for beginngers than Maggie Glezer's Blessing of Bread, in most respects it is far inferior to Glezer's work. There are few recipes for Challah (as a previous review noted the one for plain Challah does not contain eggs) and the recipes for the other breads are lackluster. If you want a book that examines Jewish baking through the ages and across many different regions, Glezer's book is definitely the better choice. If your goal is a basic overview of Challah and a few basic recipes, Ansh's book will suffice.



2. this beautifully written book has changed my sabbath table forever. I tried the recipe and tips this week and got amazing results. My challas looked absolutely stunning, nicer than the bakery and my family tells me they were delicious!!! I have until now made tasty but funny looking challa but this easy to read and implement guide has transformed my challa baking both spiritually and physically. its a must have!



3. A Taste of Challah: A Comprehensive Guide to Challah and Bread Baking by Tamar Ansh is truly one of the most comprehensive books, complete with clear and detailed instructions and over 350 beautiful full-color step-by-step photographs
   
   It is more than just another bread-making recipe book. I am an experienced bread maker and have taught classes in breadmaking for many years. Nevertheless, I learned so much from Tamar's book. Whether you're a novice to challah/bread-baking or an old hand at it, this is a book you'll definitely want to own.
   
   In addition to recipes and instructions for everything you ever wanted to know about making and braiding challah, there are wonderful chapters on large challah shapes, small challah shapes, health challah and breads, specialty breads, Middle Eastern breads and accompaniments, and fun and different ideas. Recipes include, in addition to the traditional challahs, Zatar challah, Pecan challah, Yemenite Saluf, flower-shaped challah rolls, kubana, onion croissants and dessert breads and rolls.



4. instructions, which can be followed with ease, great results, that's exactely what I expect.
   How to braid the dough, however, is not as clearcut as how to prepare and bake it.
   If you want to bake great tasting challah or other breads like sourdough (the pizza dough is really tasty too) this is the book of your choice!



5. This is an unusual book. It is, as other reviews have noted, far more a book about challah--spiritual components, religious components--than it is a cookbook. The title is thus a tad misleading. It also, as has also been noted, lacks a basic recipe for challah with eggs, which is like doing a French bread cookbook without a baguette recipe.
   
   However, I have to admit that the recipes themselves are excellent. I've made the za'atar bread twice, and it disappears rapidly because it is so tasty. The basic no-egg challah recipe is fine, and all of the others I've tried are also very good.
   
   The book is expensive, and unless you're really excited about the non-recipe content or, like me, you collect bread cookbooks, I am not sure that I'd recommend it, but there are certainly some useful things here.

3 comments about Sephardic Israeli Cuisine: A Mediterranean Mosaic.

1. Over a hundred kosher recipes celebrate Israeli cuisine, using typical Sephardic/Mid East ingredients from cinnamon to orange flower water and adding spice to favorites such as Crescent Olive Puffs and Libyan Mafrum, a meat and potatoes spicy dish. No photos, but most of these delicious dishes simply don't need illustration.



2. If you've been cooking Mama's Eastern-European recipes long enough, and you want your meals to turn over a new, more Sephardic leaf, in step with Israeli-style cooking, Sheilah Kaufman's cookbook Sephardic Israeli Cuisine: A Mediterranean Mosaic is for you.
   
   Start changing your cooking by changing your ingredients. Put aside the potatoes and the cabbage in favor of eggplant and artichokes. Forget the wheat and barley and go for rice and couscous. Leave the apples and pears on the shelf and choose the melons and apricots. Now that you have a lot of ingredients that you have no idea what to do with, reach for Sephardic Israeli Cuisine: A Mediterranean Mosaic .
   
   To follow these authentic recipes you will have to stock up on some new-to-the-Polish-palate, spices. The section on Condiments and Spices will guide you right through the Middle Eastern spice market. I doubt that any of us will actually bother to make the spices when they are so readily availalbe in any Israeli market. But in this section you will learn what Zatar and Zhoug (and many other spices) are really made of.
   
   In my eternal search for easy-to-make appetizers that taste good even when prepared several days before serving, this cookbook offers Leah Spiegel's recipe for Walnut Dip. Combine all the easy to find ingredients into a food processor, zumm, and store it in the frig. Alas! My kind of recipe.
   
   Here are the recipes for the well known but Gd-know-what's-in -`em dishes like Mafrum. This exotic sounding Lybian dish turns out to be beef stew. What's special about Morroccan Cholent? In addition to all the unique spicing that Bubi never dreamed of, Moroccans make their Cholent with honey. Yes, honey.
   
   We all know about the eggs that brown in the Cholent over night. Huevos Haminados is another Shabbat dish that Sephardi Yerushalmim and Turkish Jews make, that gives you the brown eggs but without the Cholent.
   
   Your Polish taste buds may be adjusting to Sephardic and Middle Eastern foods slowly, but everybody loves those great Sephardic and Middle Eastern desserts. No matter where you are from, you will delight in those bite-size syrupy sweet and often crunchy specialties like Baklava. Kaufman offers a recipe for preparing Baklava by the sheet that you later cut into individual pieces. I was more intrigued by the recipe from Lybia for sweet roses called Debla, which is popular on Purim. These beautiful individual edible rose-shaped sweets are made of dough that is wound around into a rose-like shape and covered in sugar syrup. They look just like flowers covered in morning dew, and must be gorgeous in mishloach manot.
   
   This cookbook has an excellent section on Sephardic Passover recipes. This Pesach, in addition to your traditional haroset you can prepare the Haroset from Turkey - also made with apples, nuts and wine, but with the addition of dates and raisins. Or you can make the Abravanel family haroset recipe originating in Portugal. In addition to the nuts and the wine, this recipe has - you won't believe it - orange juice and cherry jam. I liked the Passover recipe for sponge cake, which has a lot of eggs but no oil, so much for kitniyot issues.
   
   The cookbook ends with a small section on Ashkenazi foods. I am not sure why this was necessary. From my point of view the book held its own with just the Sephardic recipes.
   
   In addition to all the great recipes the cookbook has a section on the history of Sephardic Jews and an essay on the foods traditionally eaten on the Jewish holidays.
   
   The books opens with a translation of the Bendigamos, the Grace After Meals according to the tradition of the Spanish Portuguese Jews. It would have been nice had the Ladino text appeared alongside the English translation.
   
   Sephardic Israeli Cuisine: A Mediterranean Mosaic is a fine addition to your cookbook collection. You'll enjoy preparing these unique recipes and incorporating them into your standard repertoire.



3. Slightly exotic while at the same time being good for you. Easy to prepare with simple to understand directions. And most of all, delicious! What more could you ask? Take it from a mensch who likes to eat; this is a terrific cookbook with some wonderful recipes and excellent ideas!

1 comments about The Kosher Palette II: Coming Home, the Art and Simplicity of Kosher Cooking.

1. The first Kosher Palette is a great kosher cookbook, especially if you entertain a lot. The second one is also great, and I find that there are many more recipes in it that are suitable for weeknight cooking for the family. A lot of the recipes are quick and easy, everything I've made so far tastes great. My only "issue" is that this time they obviously had some corporate sponsorship, as they specify various brands of products in many of the recipes. Not a big deal, but it just gets on my nerves! Otherwise it's a really amazing cookbook.

5 comments about Levana's Table: Kosher Cooking for Everyone.

1. I bought Levana's book after attending her cooking classes in New York City (http://www.levanakirschenbaum.com). This book is a great companion for her classes -- I recommend them both highly! Her Brisket makes a great seder main course.



2. During a summer picnic someone advised me to buy Levana's cookbook. Since I bought this cookbook I don't look anymore at others. I also follow her cooking classes at Lincoln Square Synagogue and they are too good to be true. She makes healthy dishes which are very easy to make and simply delicious as well. I was always a bit insecure about cooking since often recipes didn't turn out like they should. Not with levana's recipes; they work. It really makes me happy to see that my dishes turn out so well. Levana uses all kinds of healthy grains, I never heard of before, gives alternatives to white cane sugar, gives easy recipes to make fish and chicken exotic in no time, turns heavy dairy dishes into light soy creations and uses vegetables, spices and herbs in such a magical way that even the greatest carnivore would consider to become a vegetarian.
   I am waiting for her new cookbook.



3. I have to say that this book has to be one of the top kosher cookbooks. So far I only tried one recipe, which happened to be marinated steak for the grill, which was unbelievable. My guests could not stop raving about it. I imagine that most of the other recipes should follow suit. I noticed a trend with her recipes, to include green peppercorns and/or saffron. Green peppercorns, could be found at most gourmet shops, but when she calls for green peppercorns in brine, I have yet to see where that exists. I'm sure it's out there somewhere, but she doesn't elaborate on it. Levana is a fan of tofu, as she explains in the book, book I can't comment if those recipes are good (even though I speculate that they are). I bought all of the ingredients for her non-dairy Tiramisu, but I didn't have time to make it. Her book is fun to read, and you can't help be excited to try her next recipe.



4. This book of enticing recipes and gorgeous photos is a perfect gift for your favorite hostess. Levana is a master chef who is passionate about her work, and it shows. Her elegance and attention to detail are illustrated throughout Levana's Table. In addition to a collection of great recipes, Levana takes you inside her world of presentation and entertaining. She offers thoughtful tips and advice throughout.
   
   The target audience for Levana's Table is Kosher, yet Levana herself follows a mostly dairy-free diet, as evidenced in this book. Only a handful of the 150+ recipes contain any milk products, while several inviting dairy-free options, including a Tiramisu, are offered.
   
   One thing I truly enjoyed about this cookbook was the adventurousness. Levana's recipes touch every portion of the globe. Chili Sans Carne highlights a famous Latin dish, Lamb and Eggplant Curry demonstrates an excellent use of Indian spices, and a jazzed up Miso Soup (with Shiitakes and Swiss Chard) offers some new flavors to one of my old favorites.
   
   Several of the recipes call for more extravagant ingredients, so this may not be my daily go-to cookbook. Nonetheless, the instructions are uncomplicated and easy to follow. When guests are coming, or I need some inspiration to trial new foods, Levana's Table will certainly be the first place I look.



5. This is my favorite cookbook ever!!! Everything I've cooked from this book tastes great. With the exception of the short chapter on fancy recipes from her restaurant, the ingredients are very down to earth and not complicated. I love all the personal anecdotes Levana includes. You can just tell this is her passion.

4 comments about Sephardic Flavors: Jewish Cooking of the Mediterranean.

1. Chef, author, restaurateur, and Mediterranean cooking specialist Joyce Goldstein follows her acclaimed Cucina Ebraica: Flavors of the Italian Jewish Kitchen with a study of Mediterranean Jewish cooking. While researching Cucina Ebraica, she immersed herself in Sephardic History. She wondered how the Jews evolved their cuisine, what influences they took from the Moors, the Portuguese, Andalusians, Valencians, Balearic Islanders, Greeks, Ottomans, and Balkans. What were the harmonizations to other communities and the contrasts to the Italian Jewish cuisine she was researching? She answers these questions and more in the book's opening collection of essays (about 22 pages). This is followed by several pages of sample full menus for Shabbat and Jewish holidays and commemorations. For example, there are Leek Fritters for Hanukkah, Mijavyani (a vegetable soup with plums) for Tu B'Shevat, Lentil Soup for Tisha B'Av, or Moussaka di Pesce and Macaroni and Cheese-Thrace Style (using feta and non-elbow Ziti) for Shavuot. If you are wondering how her book compares to DRIZZLE OF HONEY by David Gitlitz and Linda Kay Davidson, it is her feeling that while DRIZZLE is filled with fascintaing stories and history, her cookbook adds more culinary skills to the execution of recipes. The chapters include ones for Salads and Appetizers; Savory Pastries; Soups; Vegetables and Grains; Fish; Poultry and Meat; and Desserts. In the chapter for Salads and Appetizers, Goldstein writes, that Sephardic cuisine inverts the oil to vinegar ratio (3:1) with which most North Americans are familiar. Sephardic cooking is more tart, so the vinegar ratio is much higher (1:3). My favorite recipes were the Tarator (a cousin to Tzatziki) and Huevos HAMINados, or onion skin eggs, or Jewish eggs (Yahudi Yamurta). The chapter on savory pastries, which are also known as borekas, inchusa, tapada, rondanches, boyos, and filas (to name just a few), includes recipes for Izmir-style Handrajos, or Eggplant and Squash filled borekas. In her chapter on soups, Goldstein tells the reader that it is not a coincidence that the Spanish word for Jewess is the same for bean (judia). She provides recipes for several soups and adafina, or what some Jews may call cholent. My favorites included meatball soup, and a white bean soup. There are 24 recipes in the Vegetables and Grains chapter. Standouts are Turlu, a Turkish Ratatouille; a squash omelet fritada; and pumpkin and prunes, which resembles a Moroccan Jewish style Hilou. The tomato bread pudding was also very unique. A fish dish that is very interesting for the period between Simhat Torah and Hanukkah is Peshkado Avramila, or fish with sour plums or prunes. Goldstein writes that it recalls Abraham's self-circumcision, since Sephardic folklore says that Avraham sat under a plum tree after the procedure. The 22 meat and poultry recipes includes one for Gayna al Orno, a roast chicken with apples and pomegranates; and one for Keftas de Gayna, chicken meatballs with egg and lemons (two of them). The standout is the Rollo me HAMINados is a meatloaf with sweet and sour tomato sauce (uses honey and wine) baked with eggs in the center. The book closes, as do meals, with desserts that include Hanukkah Fritters in a honey lemon glaze; Baklava, Tispishti, Sutlatch, and Zerda ( a rice pudding).



2. Joyce Goldstein author and chef also understands the relationship between culture and food. Her book on Jewish Italian cooking should be read by anyone who likes to read cook books.

   In this book, Goldstein explores Sephardic food, the culinary heritage of Jews of the Middle East. She does not disapoint. The recipes are easy to follow and very tasty. The presentation is excellent and will make your mouth water. What is wonderful about all of Goldstein's work is you can see how Jews have, for centuries, absorbed the recipes of the culture in which they live, adapting them for their own tastes and dietery requirements. My wife and I have had a wonderful time cooking out of this book. The only problem is deciding what to make first.

   A great work.




3. We usually think one excellent dish is worth the price of a cookbook (think of the price you'd pay to eat an excellent dish at a restaurant), and we've made at least 3 or 4 out of this one already. Joyce Goldstein has also really sought out a nice variety of Sephardic cuisines. And the photographs are gorgeous.



4. I bought this as a Christmas present for my wife on a whim as I was browsing the cookbooks. So far she has enjoyed it and even made the meatloaf recipe successfully (with hard-boiled eggs inside) withing the first week of having it. The recipes inside tend to lean more toward the Mediterranean than the Jewish but they are thoughtful and interesting without being too unusual. I'd reccommend it for anyone who want an "off the beaten track" cookbook, and it's cheap, too!

5 comments about The Scent of Orange Blossoms: Sephardic Cuisine from Morocco.

1. The Scent of Orange Blossoms is a lovingly assembled cook's tour of a regional cuisine that obviously has special meaning for the author. All eight of Kitty's cookbooks have been beautifully written and illustrated, but this one, with its mouthwatering recipes and pages of luscious photos by her husband Owen, is truly a feast for the senses.

   I spent three wonderful years living in Morocco and although I learned many recipes from Moroccan neighbors and some from Kitty herself, I have found in her latest book new combinations of spices, fresh vegetables and meats that I can't wait to try. Most of the Sephardic families had left Morocco when I lived there in the seventies and most of their recipes had gone with them. Kitty's meticulous research with Danielle and the wonderful stories and letters that illustrate this tome make it as much a history book as a cook book.

   More than anything else, at this time of great conflict and crisis in the world, The Scent of Orange Blossoms is a wonderful reminder of how Jews and Arabs can live (and cook) together in peace and harmony as they did for centuries in Morocco.

   I must go now and begin preparing my preserved lemons (p. 20).

   Salaam and shalom.




2. A celebration of Jewish cuisine that came from the interaction between Jews and Moslems in North Africa and Spain. When the author Kitty Morse led eating tours of Morocco, the highlight was a meal at the villa of retailer Danielle Mamane in Fez el Jdid. Both women have collaborated on this well designed and interesting book of recipes. I recommend it for its recipes, design, stories, and photographs. In addition to recipes, letters between mothers and their newly married daughters, and introductory stories, the authors list menu plans (with recipe page numbers) for the Jewish holidays, as well as the more Moroccan Jewish celebrations of La Mimouna (Pesach period), Hillula (visiting sages), and Kappara (pre-Yom Kippur). For Jewish weddings, there is the customary flan (t'faya). For Mimouna, the recommended recipes are Chicken with Orange Juice; Sephardic Mafleta pancakes; and couscous with raisin and onions confit. My favorite recipes include Walnuts with Pomegranate Seeds (which uses a heavy dose of orange blossom water); a cucumber with lemon salad; fish filets made in Fez style (with tomatoes, potatoes, and garlic); Fresh Fava Bean Soup with Cilantro for Passover; Chicken Couscous with Orange Blossom Water for Yom Kippur; Harira or Lentil and Chickpeas Soup (for Moslem Ramadan and Jewish Yom Kippur break-the-fasts); Meatballs in Onion Cinnamon Sauce, Chicken with Saffron and Ginger and Onions; and Honey Doughnuts for Hannukah. There are Fish Fillets a la Fassi (Fez style); Dafina Shabbat Stew (skhina); Chicken with Garbanzo Beans in Tetouan style; and Tangier style Potato Stew that uses preserved beef (kleehe). The Tagine of Beef uses carrot and turnips as well as cilantro, garlic, ginger, and tumeric. The Cornish Hens with Fresh Figs uses 12 figs and 12 threads of saffron; the Chicken with Onion and Tomatoes uses toasted almonds, ginger and eight threads of saffron. Preserved fruits, lemons, and kumquats play an important role in the cuisine. There is a recipe for Sephardic Shabbat Challa, and the Top of The Shelf spice that is often used; it includes a blending of cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, allspice, mace, salt and ginger. La Maguina, a vegetable and meat frittata, is sliced like meatloaf. Some unique soups and salads are a white and chard soup a la Tangiers; a fennel salad; a tomato and bell pepper salad with garlic, paprika and sugar; fava bean salad with cumin; and tomato with preserved lemons.



3. I just made Kitty Morse's Mint tea from her book Scent of Orange Blossoms. For years I have been digging and chopping away at a large patch of spearmint that takes over a section of my yard trying to get rid of it. Now after making Kitty's mint tea I am looking for another empty space to plant more. A simple infusion of fresh spearmint leaves, a little green tea and some sugar provided am amazing treat.



4. Excellent book for people who want to have a solid base of Moroccan cooking.
   Finally recipes of our favorite foods with precise measurements.
   AE



5. absolutely fantastic book. With a bookshelf of cookbooks I rarely use I was debating on purchasing this book. I am glad I did!

5 comments about 1,000 Jewish Recipes.

1. Winner of the National Jewish Book Award 2000 (awarded March 2001). Ms Levy is a syndicated columnist with the LA Times and an experienced cookbook author. Her book contains new and classic Jewish recipes for life and nearly every holiday and Shabbat. It also includes 23 sample menus. Each recipe is tagged with either a (P)areve, (M)eat, or (D)airy tag. Chapters include those for Passover, Shavuot, the High Holidays, Sukkot, Hanukkah, Purim, Shabbat, and Appetizers, Salads, Soups, Dairy Specialties, Fish, Poultry, Meats, Vegetarian and Pareve Main Courses, Veg. Side Dishes, Noodle and Pasta dishes, Rice and Grain dishes, Breads, Desserts, and a section of basics, including flavorings, sauces, and 10 different types of stocks. Recipes among the 1,000 that I found most interesting including Persian Pear and Banana Haroset for Pesach; Farefl Stuffing with leeks and Carrots; Passover Turkey Schnitzel (incorrectly tagged as Pareve; it is meat); Onion Matza Brei; Spinach and Cottage Cheese Noodle Kugel; Macaroni and Cheese Kugel; Beet Salad with Apples and OJ; Gefilte Fish; Sea Bass with Saffron and Tomato Sauce; Turkey Tzimmes with Sweet Potatoes; Adi Levy's Kibbutz Honey Chicken (you partially roast it, then glaze it with soy and honey); a Meingue Topping; Sephardic Spinach Cakes; Queen Esther's Salad (lettuce, nuts and seeds to eat in the palace); Haman's Fingers; Alsatian Jewish Sauerkraut with Meat; Alsatian Kugelhopf cake; Mock Chopped Liver (one with cashews, one with lentils); Spicy Moroccan Fish Stew; Chicken with Olives; a Friday night Chicken with Cumin Tumeric and Pepper; two dafinas and eight cholents; Miami Style Sweet Potato Puree; at least six chopped liver recipes, 7 hummus, 7 knish, 6 matzo ball (one which is matzo and cholesterol free), 13 challah, 8 bagel, 4 pita, one dozen blintzes, and 5 potato salad recipes; and one for Egyptian Jewish Okra Salad. Now you can see why it won the award.



2. I am a former kosher food columnist and was somewhat disappointed in this large and expensive tome with the promising title. Faye Levy lives in Israel and this is really a comprehensive overview of the various Israeli styles of cooking, with a few French-style (she trained in France) and Ashkenazi recipes (from her family) thrown in. Most of the recipes don't sound either particularly exciting or easy to make and her prose is, well pretty prosaic, so it's not a good armchair book either.

   A better title would be 1000 Kosher Recipes, although it probably wouldn't sell as well. If you're a big fan of Israeli cuisine, you might find this book useful. If you're expecting more of the traditional East-European and American-Jewish fare, pass it up.




3. A very comprehensive and contemporary cookbook featuring traditional kosher cuisine and new classics. Includes all types of kosher cuisine (Sephardic, Ashkenazic, European, etc.). An excellent all around cookbook to have--our family cookbook "bible". I am not generally too fond of her cake recipes, but the "My Favorite Cheesecake" is fabulous! A must for the modern kosher cook!



4. This is a very large collection of Jewish recipes grouped by the holiday. I find this very helpful. Particularly helpful is the section on challah. She includes recipes and directions for three methods of bread making.There are personal tidbits about the recipes also. This is a must -have for any person who wants to make Jewish food. I am really thrilled to have it and the seller sent it quickly, right in time for the Jewish New Year! The book has no pictures.



5. If you're looking for something beyond the traditional recipes for potato kugel, plain challah, and brisket (although they're in there, too), this is a great cookbook. It's nice to see a broad representation of Jewish culture and heritage here, and will enable you to expand the repetoire of your Jewish kitchen! Absolutely recommended!

No comments about Rogov's Guide to Israeli Wines, 2009.